Matheus Cunha

Matheus Santos Carneiro da Cunha (born 27 May 1999), commonly known as Matheus Cunha, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Wolverhampton Wanderers and the Brazil national team. He has also been deployed as a second striker or winger.

Cunha played youth football in Brazil for Coritiba. At the age of 18, he moved to Europe to join Swiss club Sion. He then played for Bundesliga clubs RB Leipzig and Hertha BSC, before joining Atlético in August 2021.

Cunha won a gold medal with the Brazil under-23 team at the 2020 Summer Olympics. He made his senior international debut in September 2021.

Early life
Cunha was born in the city of João Pessoa, Brazil. As a child he played futsal for a club in Recife, before switching to football.

Sion
Cunha played youth football for Coritiba, before joining Swiss club Sion at the age of 18 in July 2017, after impressing scouts at the Dallas Cup youth tournament. In May 2018, he scored a hat-trick in a 4–1 victory over Thun.

RB Leipzig
On 24 June 2018, Cunha joined Bundesliga club RB Leipzig on a five-year deal. He scored his maiden Bundesliga goal against his future club Hertha BSC, to mark a 3–0 win in November 2018. He scored a goal against Bayer Leverkusen in April 2019 that won the Bundesliga Goal of the Month award, and was nominated for the FIFA Puskás Award. He finished the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League season with 6 goals.

Hertha BSC
On 31 January 2020, Hertha BSC announced the signing of Cunha, the Brazilian arriving for a fee of €18 Million.

Atlético Madrid
On 25 August 2021, he joined Atlético Madrid on a five-year contract for a fee of €30 Million. He scored his first goal against Levante to seal a 2–2 draw.

Wolverhampton Wanderers
On 1 January 2023, Cunha joined Wolverhampton Wanderers on loan for the remainder of the 2022–23 season, in a deal which stipulated the move would become permanent in the summer of 2023, certain clauses in the loan agreement having been met. Cunha's first appearance for Wolves was as a second-half substitute away to Aston Villa on 4 January 2023 in the Premier League, a game that finished as a 1–1 draw.

Cunha's first goal for Wolves came in a 4–2 defeat at home to Leeds United in the Premier League on 18 March 2023, a game which saw Wolves finish with only 9 players on the pitch due to red cards.

Cunha's first goal of the 2023–24 Premier League season for Wolves came in a 3–2 defeat away to Crystal Palace on 3 September 2023. His first goal for the club in a game where Wolves ran out as winners, came in a 2–1 success away to Bournemouth in the Premier League on 21 October 2023.

Cunha scored his first F.A. Cup goal, a penalty, in extra-time of a 3–2 Third Round replay victory over Brentford at Molineux on 16 January 2024. He scored again in the next round of the F.A. Cup against Wolves' bitterest rivals, West Bromwich Albion, in a 2–0 victory at The Hawthorns on 28 January, a goal that led to crowd unrest breaking out in sections of the ground designated for West Brom supporters.

On 4 February 2024, Cunha scored his first Wolves' hat-trick in a 4–2 away victory against Chelsea, becoming just the second Wolves player (after Diogo Jota in January 2019) to score a hat-trick in the Premier League and only the fourth opposition player to score a hat-trick at Stamford Bridge in Premier League history. On April 13, 2024, Cunha scored a brace against Nottingham Forest.

Matheus ended his second season with great progress in an important way between the two years. In this sense, in 2023/2024, he scored 14 goals and provided eight assists in 36 games.

Under-23 team
With Brazil's under-23 team, Cunha was the top scorer of the 2019 Toulon Tournament and the 2020 CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament, winning the former and finishing as runner-up in the latter, thus securing qualification to the Olympics for the Brazil team with the latter performance. On 17 June 2021, he was named in Brazil's squad for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. In August 2021, he won a gold medal with Brazil at the Olympics, having scored 3 goals in 5 appearances at the tournament. Overall, Cunha has scored 21 goals in 24 games for the under-23 team.

Senior team
In September 2020, Cunha was called up to the senior Brazil squad for 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification matches against Bolivia and Peru on 9 and 13 October 2020, respectively.

He made his debut for the senior national team on 2 September 2021, in a World Cup qualifier against Chile, a 1–0 away victory. He substituted Gabriel Barbosa in the 78th minute.

Honours
Brazil U23
 * Summer Olympics: 2020
 * Toulon Tournament: 2019